


Dinner with a Friend

by yourecool



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Barbecue, Gen, I just wanted to attempt an iz self insert fic, i dunno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 18:49:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21081383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourecool/pseuds/yourecool
Summary: Dumb self insert fic





	Dinner with a Friend

“You should invite a friend over for dinner Friday!” Mara’s mom informed her over dinner Tuesday evening, completely out of the blue. Mara froze in the middle of chewing, staring at her mom like a deer caught in the headlights. Oblivious to her daughter’s distress, Mrs. Rosewood paused to take another bite of her food, chewed for a bit, swallowed, and then went on, “Your father will be home early that day—we’re planning a barbecue.” She smiled at expectantly at Mara, waiting for her response. After a moment, Mara recovered from her shock and swallowed her food, eyes darting nervously around for an escape. “Um, can I have a friend over another time?” She asked. “I don’t—“ ‘—have any friends,’ she thought, “—really feel like it right now.” She said.

Her mother frowned. “But you never have friends over, Mara! I’m starting to worry about you.” Mara shifted awkwardly in her seat. “It’s not like I never  _ ever  _ have friends over,” she tried to deflect. “It is  _ exactly _ like that,” her mom disagreed, “the last time you had a friend over was in first grade!”  Mara frowned. “I just don’t have a lot of friends, mom, it’s no big deal.” But Mrs. Rosewood shook her head. 

“You need to socialize more!” She jabbed a fork at her daughter. “You’re so quiet and withdrawn these days- always on your phone or drawing or reading. You never talk to me! Invite a friend over for dinner—what about that one friend of yours, from Skool? The girl who likes video games...Gaz?”

“Um.”

Gaz was one of Mara’s classmates. They sat next to each other in class and at lunch every day, but not out of any sense of friendship. Both Mara and Gaz tended to ignore everything that didn’t interest them—Gaz was always absorbed in a video game, and Mara was usually occupied with her artwork. They both preferred to stay quiet and keep to themselves, and they knew that the other wouldn’t bother them because of that. Plus, Mara had noticed that for some reason the other kids were less likely to bother you if you were with someone else. 

Mara drew stuff for Gaz sometimes, characters from her games, but they weren’t  _ friends _ . They’d said barely two words to each other. The art was just a payment, of sorts, for putting up with Mara’s presence.

Another thing: Gaz was  _ intimidating _ . Her video games were full of blood and gore, she was quick to respond with violence if someone bothered her/did something she didn’t like/breathed in her general vicinity, she was completely indifferent to human suffering, she  _ wasn’t scared of Mrs Bitters, _

...She was not the type of person you invited to dinner with your parents, basically. 

“Mom, do I really have to—“

“If you don’t, I’m going to confiscate your phone for a week.” 

‘Welp.’ Mara thought, ‘that settles it.’If Gaz said no and she was desperate enough, she could always ask Keef.

“You’d talk more if you spent less time on your phone anyways—what do you even do on that thing? You don’t use it for phone calls, I know that much, cause you never answer the darn phone...”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun idea I had for Mara is that she would definitely realize something was wrong with Zim and Dib if she ever looked up, but she’s always occupied with drawing or on her phone, so she remains completely oblivious to the daily wars they have in the cafeteria and Zim’s weird, clearly-an-alien behavior. Like most of the students, she just thinks Dib is harassing a normal kid with a skin condition.


End file.
